Festival Express is a 2003 documentary film about the 1970 train tour of the same name across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.[1][2] The film combines live footage shot during the 1970 concerts, as well as footage aboard the train itself, interspersed with present-day interviews with tour participants sharing their often humorous recollections of the events.[3]

The event, initially billed as the Transcontinental Pop Festival, was promoted by Eaton-Walker Associates (consisting of Thor Eaton, George Eaton, and Ken Walker) and was produced and financed by Industrial and Trade Shows of Canada (ITS) division of MacLean-Hunter Publishing Company (Hugh F. Macgregor developed and conceived the project from beginning to end) and was to encompass the following cities:[5][7][8]

Venue could not be secured from the city and Vancouver was dropped from the tour in mid-April, 1970[10]

The Montreal event was cancelled a few weeks before the scheduled date by Lucien Saulnier, chairman of the City of Montreal Executive Committee (and acting under authority of mayor Jean Drapeau), because it clashed with St. Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24) celebrations and there were concerns about a diluted security force and the potential for violence.[9][10][13] Buses were run from Montreal to the Toronto Festival Express stop and Montreal tickets were honored in Toronto.[14][15] The Vancouver venue, Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) Empire Stadium, could not be secured as they were scheduled to have artificial turf (Tartan Turf) installed shortly before the scheduled event, and there was concern about damage to the turf.[5][10] In March, 1970, ITS requested use of an alternate venue, Capilano Stadium, for the event, but this was denied by the Vancouver City Council over several concerns, including inadequate sanitary and food facilities, challenges with policing the event, and vagrancy.[8][16] Therefore, Vancouver was dropped from the tour, and Calgary was subsequently added. The event in Calgary was initially to be held in an open field, Paskapoo Ski Hill (to later become Canada Olympic Park), but the city requested it be held at McMahon Stadium instead, as it would permit better organization and security.[17]

The tour ultimately began in Toronto at the CNE Grandstand, which was plagued with about 2500 protestors who objected to what they viewed as exploitation by price-gouging promoters. The opposition was organized by the May 4th Movement (M4M), the left-rebel group that grew out of the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings. They attempted to crash the gates and scale the barbed wire fence and clashed with police, resulting in several injuries. To help calm the crowd, Metro Police Inspector Walter Magahay tried to get the promoter, Ken Walker, to lower ticket prices, but he refused. Subsequently, Jerry Garcia, in conjunction with Magahay, was instrumental in calming the unruly crowd by arranging a spontaneous free "rehearsal" concert in nearby Coronation Park upon a flatbed truck, while the scheduled show continued at the stadium. Once the free concert, which began at about 7:00pm on June 27, was announced, most of the ticketless fans dispersed to Coronation Park, with an initial attendance of about 6,000, thereby resolving the protest. Once the show at the CNE Grandstand ended at 12:30am, another 6,000 fans went to the park for the remainder of the free concert, which lasted until about 4:00am on June 28. Playing at Coronation Park were The Grateful Dead, Ian & Sylvia and the Great Speckled Bird, James and the Good Brothers, the New Riders of the Purple Sage (all from the original scheduled concert). Other local Toronto bands also played, including January, The People's Revolutionary Concert Band, Si Potma and P.M. Howard (of Beatlemania fame). There are some reports indicating a free concert was also performed on the second day, albeit to a much smaller crowd of about 500, as many of the protesters paid admission to the event on the second day. Many people spent the night and following day sleeping in the park until the second show at CNE Grandstand ended at 12:30am on June 29.[18][19][20]

(The film shows a liquor stop in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.) On the way to Winnipeg, the second stop on the tour, the train stopped in Chapleau, Ontario, to replenish its dwindling alcohol supply, buying out the entire stock of a small liquor store.[21] The Winnipeg show had only a modest turnout of 4,600, partly due to fears about crowd violence based on the events in Toronto and partly due to the Manitoba Centennial appearance by Prime Minister Trudeau.[10] The event was not plagued with protest or any appreciable violence, however.[19]

In Calgary, the third and final stop, the police wished to avoid the protests that were witnessed in Toronto and their presence seemed to subdue the crowds outside the stadium, though there were many complaints about the ticket prices. It was estimated that about 1000 people managed to sneak in on Saturday by climbing fences (a few rushed the gates) early in the day, but security was tightened and on Saturday afternoon and Sunday fewer people had sneaked in for free.[22] However, there was a heated altercation between promoter Ken Walker and Calgary mayor Rod Sykes after Sykes strongly suggested to Walker on Sunday afternoon that he open the gates and let the kids in for free after the show was well underway. Walker, who was livid about the mayor's intrusion and his reference to Walker as "Eastern scum" "trying to skim" the young people of Calgary, claimed to have punched the mayor in the mouth, and boasted that he still had a scar on his hand to prove it.[23][24]

The tour had an original budget of about $900,000 (of which $500,000 was for musical talent), but largely due to less than predicted turnout, gross receipts were just over $500,000 and the project ultimately lost between $350,000 and $500,000 for the promoters.[11][19][23][24] Although the tour was a financial failure (subsequently recovered by producing an biographical movie and record of Janis Joplin's life after her death), the tour featured now-legendary performances by The Band, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Sha Na Na and Buddy Guy, among others. The Dead were just transforming their sound from dense, jammed psychedelia to the country/folk harmonies of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty; the Band's performance showed them at the pinnacle of their powers;[4] for Janis Joplin, it would turn out to be some of her last performances, as she died about three months later. In the film, musician Kenny Gradney, who performed with Delaney & Bonnie, commented on the atmosphere during the tour, "It was better than Woodstock, as great as Woodstock was." Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead further said, "Woodstock was a treat for the audience, but the train was a treat for the performers."[25]

Mountain (member Leslie West can be seen jamming at the beginning of the film)

Ten Years After (only performed in Toronto - fantastic performances of I'm Goin' Home and Slow Blues In C were filmed, but lead guitarist and singer Alvin Lee wouldn't approve their appearance in the film, saying he thought his guitar was out of tune) (the source for this is Gavin Poolman, producer of the film, in May 2011)

Traffic (only performed in Toronto - didn't ride the train; on the DVD, promoter Ken Walker states that Traffic was on the train but the band's record company wouldn't allow them to appear in the film. Two performances were filmed anyway, however Steve Winwood's management refused permission for these to appear in the film) (the source for this is Gavin Poolman, producer of the film, in May 2011)

Because the Festival Express tour turned out to be a complete financial disaster, the film project was shelved soon afterwards, as the promoters sued the filmmakers, and the footage mysteriously disappeared. Some of the film's reels turned up in the garage of the original producer Willem Poolman, where they had been stored for decades and used at various times as goal posts for ball hockey games played by his son Gavin. The plan to resurrect the film was started in 1999 by executive producer Garth Douglas and story consultant James Cullingham, who found many more reels in the Canadian National Film Archives vault, where it had been kept in pristine condition and unknown to the world. Garth got in touch with Gavin, who had grown up to become a London-based film producer. Gavin produced the film together with his old high school friend John Trapman (who had played in some of those ball hockey games), and Bob Smeaton, double Grammy Award-winning director of the The Beatles Anthology was brought on board. The music tracks were mixed at Toronto's MetalWorks Studios, and produced by Eddie Kramer, Jimi Hendrix's producer, and engineer for Led Zeppelin, Woodstock, and Derek & The Dominos Live In Concert.

The film was produced by London-based Apollo Films (now owned by Apollo Media) together with PeachTree Films from Amsterdam.

The film was released theatrically on July 23, 2004 in the United States, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Scandinavia.[4]

The film earned $1.2 million at the US Box Office, and the DVD went straight in at number 1 on the Music Video & Concert DVD top-sellers charts at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Tower Records, etc., and has had an average customer review rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. According to Rotten Tomatoes, Festival Express was the second most critically acclaimed film released in 2004.[26]